Little in MDOT’s 5-year plan for state roads in county

Wednesday

Dec 19, 2012 at 3:00 PM

By Daily Telegram staff

ADRIAN — Drivers will see few orange barrels on state highways in Lenawee County in the next five years.

After remaining details of construction and paving projects in Adrian are wrapped up next spring, contractors are not expected back on a state highway in Lenawee County until 2017. A 5.7-mile rehabilitation project on M-34 from South Main Street in Adrian west almost to Benner Highway is the only local project on a draft five-year plan submitted earlier this month by the Michigan Department of Transportation.

One reason for the coming lack of attention to state highways in Lenawee County is the amount of work done here in the last two years.

“We have undertaken a lot of work recently in the county, especially this year, so the system is in fairly good shape,” said MDOT spokeswoman Kari Arend.

Contractors will be back in the spring to wrap up a paving project on M-52 through Adrian that was not completed this fall. Milling and paving is to be done from Maple Avenue to South Street where a major reconstruction of South Main Street was completed this fall.

There are few other MDOT projects on the drawing board around Lenawee County in the next few years.

In 2013, rehabilitation and paving is planned for three miles of M-50 between Brooklyn and Austin Road near Napoleon. The following year, the M-50 project is to continue for 5.9 miles from Napoleon to U.S. 127 south of Jackson.

“The other reason for a lack of projects across the region is our focus in the next 10 years on the I-75 corridor in Monroe County,” Arend said. “We have a detailed plan that will last multiple years to reconstruct the entire length of freeway in Monroe County, along with major bridge and interchange work along the corridor. The first of those reconstruction projects is scheduled in this latest five-year plan.”

MDOT has an interactive map available online that gives locations and descriptions of more than 400 projects across the state that are included in the draft plan. The map and the complete plan are available at www.mi.gov/mdot5yearplan.

The draft 2013-2017 Five-Year Transportation Program was presented to the State Transportation Commission on Dec. 6. Public comments are being accepted until Jan. 9. Written comments can be directed to Bob Parsons, Public Involvement and Hearings Officer, Bureau of Highways, Michigan Department of Transportation, P.O. Box 30050, Lansing, MI 48909. Comments can also be sent by fax to 517-373-9255 or emailed to MDOT-Five-Year-Program@michigan.gov.